Legacy was Yesterday
by Manchester Devil
Summary: Once they were heroes; X and Alia survived a deadly game of cat & mouse and have laid low ever since. In the lull of their attempts to restart their lives in the city, they found somewhere to hide, somewhere to explore their options and their past.


_**Megaman X**_

Legacy was Yesterday

X allowed himself to embrace the calming atmosphere of the cybernetic forest in the heart of a bustling metropolis as the balmy warmth filters through and between photosynthetic leaves, casting olive clusters over the verdant grass. His thoughts running wild as his thoughts process the events of the previous month in which he and Alia had both been declared Mavericks while birdsong filters in and out. He is very much aware of the prices on both their heads since breaking out from the Titanus prison colony to elude two assassins from the Dead Universe, and they had to drag out the inevitable pursuit by necessity born of a series of encounters with an enemy who is now nothing more than necrotic dust. And even now do the dots that connect the past to the present begin to make themselves known.

Even so, he doesn't allow himself to fully relax as the slightest disturbance of tranquillity will put him on high alert, especially with Alia being away – for they had to take separate routes toward their destination in order to lengthen the chase and on several occasions did they have to confront their respective pursuers alone and barely escaped with their lives. In the end, they had pool their dwindling energies together and taking the fight to their enemies – while the Maverick Hunters, who until recently counted them as their own, had worked on a plan to prevent reality from being turned inside-out and, in a rather fitting confirmation of their new lowly status, calculated their plight into the equation considering all known and unknown factors but whatever the plan was; it succeed and with that can they smooth over the very public fallout of his downfall. He remembered watching replays of scores of Maverick Hunters crossing their arms above their heads and he understood their meaning. And he couldn't stop himself smiling at the memory before leaning on the nearest tree, jade green eyes darting to and fro.

Despite all his caution, he had to resist that final step he had taken in his former life for it would attract more unwanted attention than it would protecting each other. Even now the feeling of alienation from being on the 'wrong' side of the law had clamped itself across his throat and wrists, chaffing the inner workings until they were raw and overheated. And it is constricting; the silent aftershocks are still echoing in his mind, even when he saw Alia holding two apples in her hand, an android replica of Eve returning from her harvest in a biomechanical Eden with her shoulder length blonde hair curling upward at the tips with the birds providing a soundtrack to the scene taking place without their knowledge as she hands one of the apples to X, together they walk into a shadier part of the wood and crouch down in the soft earth within the contours of a hideaway fashioned from two bushes, obscuring them from prying eyes. And together they both took a bite out of their fruit.

Even as they chew in silence, both knew they couldn't stay for long lest they be exposed yet both wanted to prolong their stay before moving on and Alia spoke up to finally break the silence, saying "I'm sorry for everything that's happened."

"You don't need to apologise." X replied after swallowing another mouthful. "What happened has happened and I'm not blaming you for it."

Alia breathed a sigh handling her half eaten apple before telling him "I know but everyone would just blame the woman for everything, ignoring circumstances. You know Gate was persona non grata because of me and that's now out in the open. I know I know he's still persona non grata because of the Nightmare Virus but that's not the point, not anymore." She kept her silence, half expecting X to downplay her role in their mutual ruination.

"Were you expecting me to start blaming you?" X then took bit another chunk of his half eaten core, and Alia looked at him as though he had jammed a live wire into her spine, almost causing her to drop her apple and jerking up through the foliage like a catapulted dummy.

"If you were expecting me to start tearing strips of you; then no, I'm not. I guess you're wondering why I went back to speak to the likes of Bamboo Pandemonium and Burn Rooster after exhausting all lines of enquiry into Lumine's disappearance: I'm all too aware of Anders' threats and had this feeling that this day would come but I guess I ran out of time because I thought Lumine's absence represented an opportunity to investigate your allegations."

Alia whispered back "You knew Reptech had grown in stature since I joined the Maverick Hunters after the Repliforce War, they had produced a lot of reploids including most of our – I mean the Maverick Hunters most recent recruits after taking over a number of Cain Industries' most valuable assets following its UWF mandated break-up and becoming part of the Lumine Foundation and you could've been killed had Edwin not followed you to Noah's Park." Alia considered her next move, and said "But thank you for taking the time to listen to me over the years." She allowed herself to smile, and X followed her example and for the moment relaxed their guard. Then they both peer through their foliage, barely rustling the leaves so that anybody who walked by would think nothing of it. "X, I know we didn't have any time to talk about 'us' since the Think Tank Trial." Alia spoke out and it was X's turn to feel the charge course through his body. "I mean - where are we going to live? Are we going to live our lives waiting for the bullet behind our heads like Mavericks?" Alia told him, her thoughts turning to the future, the apple with a small moth eaten patch of green skin had fallen into the dirt; she would not eat another bite from it.

X looked into her eyes as they grow bright in the shade and said "I've been thinking about that for a while actually regardless of the amnesty still holding it now the status quo has changed."

"You're not thinking of…"

"Taking a more hands on approach to securing peace between man and machine? No, we're in no position to pursue it for now. Besides we need to think about our next few steps first."

Alia eyes grew dim in the continuing direction of their lives, and X took note of her silence, took one last bite and said "That doesn't mean we don't have any options open to us; of course we'll never be welcomed back into the Maverick Hunters without creating a lot of resentment. Besides, the anti-reploid activists and their political allies will get back to having their field day when all this blows over".

Alia nodded and said "I suppose, what else do you have in mind?"

"I guess in a way I can finally deactivate my Buster." X's laughter lacked the warmth that Alia is accustomed to as he continued "But still I want to help people despite Sigma's bullshit mind games and terrorism, the UWF's bureaucratic interference and the sheer willingness of people to go against their better interests."

Alia wrapped her arms around his neck and though words came to mind, none of them had any relevance and were left unspoken.

"I chose to fight when the Schism War was just beginning not knowing that I would develop an aversion to violence yet I continued to enforce the shoot to kill policies that were drawn up since the first isolated Maverick incidents, at first everybody thought there was a bug, an error in the programming but extensive research at the time…"

"…wasn't even on the agenda, I know." Alia interjected. "Continue."

"I suppose in the end I was glad that the policy was finally gone but it should've been repealed a long time ago. I know in some situations it was a necessity but there are times I thought some scenarios could've been defused before the killshot decided the outcome."

"X, I understand why you get those feelings – I used to think about how to strike back at the bastards who used me to do their dirty work. I tried to tip Gate off but he didn't listen, wouldn't listen and you already know how the story ends. I wanted to see them broken, I wanted to see them rot, I want… I want… I just want my life back." The wall of floodwater that had been building up for years had finally broken through her mental defences as she allowed X to hold her, silver tears flowing down her cheeks as the birds continue to sing and the forest's few patrons outside their verdant bubble continue to live out their lives without a care in all the world, and in the middle of it all X and Alia were alone in their own world.

Alia then probed "Are you still annoyed about my naming the Zero Virus?" and X reacted with an affirmative nod in light of his loose tongue. "I understand he's your friend but it did share more characteristics with his data than it did Sigma's. Snap judgement of course but I felt it was the only plausible choice and… shit, I'm rambling again aren't I?"

"Don't worry about it." X smiled "Sure I thought it wasn't appropriate – but then I've seen that virus take Zero's form within the Eurasia Crater's godforsaken caves, but I guess Zero and I eventually saw the funny side."

Unsure about X's turn of phrase, Alia said "I suspect you have a hunch that the link between Zero and Sigma is closer than you wanted to admit."

X fell silent for he didn't want to say a word but with great reluctance he finally answered "Sigma brought him in at least eight months before The Schism War had started. During the X-Hunter case, he said that Zero was the last of 'the Doctor's' creations. At the time I didn't know what he meant but I had noticed Zero's increasing unease around the Lifesavors months after the Repliforce War, and I put it down to him feeling the strain from that senseless war. I did ask him what's up and he just said he did what to be done. I thought there was a hint of personal tragedy behind the words but I decided to leave it at that."

"There's more to the Eurasia Crater, wasn't there?"

X nodded "Imagine going into a cave far removed from reality and its walls were nothing but endless loops of your own memories; your happiest days, you greatest achievements, your most personal fantasies, even your darkest secrets. And I understood why." Alia didn't ask another question, didn't say another word – the implications were monstrous, and surely the Maverick Hunters wouldn't have a Maverick in their – and she almost described Anders' opinions of her and almost choked on the bile in her mouth. This was something else as she remembered the colour drain from Wilson's face when she saw him leave Signas' office and while the scene had no influence on her initial decision, the line of video loops that he did not mention in his report. And she got the feeling that something is amiss, and even she couldn't prepare herself for the next confession hitting her like a hammer.

"I had to fight Zero" X admitted "It wasn't like the training sessions that always end in a drink at the bar. It was a full on fight and I didn't dare to make any reference to the skirmish in my report because I knew Zero wouldn't have the luxury of a Think Tank Trial had I made even the slightest allusion." With a sudden thrust Alia pushed him down and her blue eyes glaring at him with an intensity he rarely saw, and each word she spoke were hammer blows of her own "Have you actually thought about what Eurasia was truly about? What about those robots that were chasing us? I have heard from navigators who told me that they have kept losing track of Zero's position from time to time, and even I struggle to maintain contact with him in virus infected areas. That is because his data is identical to that of the Sigma Virus, or rather the Zero Virus! I thought the high concentrations of the Sigma Virus merged with the virus that overwhelmed the Eurasia when its disintegrating remains crashed onto the Israeli/Palestinian border but it didn't, the collision erased all traces of Sigma's data, leaving only what I analysed and no wonder Wilson was shitting himself, and it's just as well we didn't connect the damn dots at the time!"

The sudden onset of chilling silence siphoned the heat out of the shade, and for the first time since she had got to know X, she heard doubt in his voice as he asked "Did I do the right thing? Or have I doomed us all?" And it became an electro-dagger being thrust into her gut and found for all her fury, she couldn't give a definite answer and thus replied "I cannot tell you for sure but I know you had the best of intentions like you did for launching your own private investigation into my allegations against Reptech."

The silence was gone but the iciness still hanged over them as an idea came to X like a candle being lit in the dark and said "It's a long shot but Gate is still in an involuntary shutdown induced coma and should the Maverick Hunters decide to restore his functionality and given all the support he needs, he can decipher Zero's data and restore his name – after all, my data is still exclusively yours."

Alia understood his meaning all too well and laughed, defrosting the atmosphere between them "Even now, I can still picture him ranting as he was removed from the premises while van Strauss and the other board members are discussing the latest developments from R&D. He said that evolution is not a wishing well for producing 'docile slaves for profit for keeping humanity's place on top of the food chain indefinitely'. He then recited the names of two scientists of contrasting renown, and I remember you mentioning one of them when you gave me the first piece of the Falcon Armour schematics from Siberia. Of course, that was the last time I saw of him until you brought him in from the clutches of the Axle the Red cult."

"Yeah, it also gave the R&D department a look at the Axis Cradle that Dark Necrobat and his crew developed to direct Axle the Red to wherever they wanted 'cleansed' via remote control – its interface may have allowed the Virus to destroy his mind when he tried to recreate that accident." X said as a memory from that day head escaped from the darkest recesses of his mind, releasing a further torrent of memories that he had no intention of accessing. "Do you remember me saying that my father mentioned you by name?"

Alia raised an eyebrow at the memory, "You did receive armour enhancements for at least three decades from a source you've never disclosed to anybody else but me, and you're telling me the AI that you refer to as your father knows my name?"

X realised his error but he also figured that since he gave her exclusive access to his system schematics and integrated her into his life, he might as well tell her the rest of his story. "My father must've explored all kinds of variables and possibilities throughout my creation and must be looking out for me over the years. And to be honest, I don't have an exact idea how they get into all the nooks and crannies but after each campaign was over, I sometimes go back and look for the capsules but they were long gone, and I haven't really thought about the whys other than him looking out for me."

Alia nodded and said "I guess I can understand it during The Schism War when it was your first campaign as a Maverick Hunter, thrown in the deep end because Sigma jumped ship to become of the greatest war criminals in history. I'm surprised about you not asking Dr Light any questions considering you were questioning every Reptech and Lumine Foundation employee you could get your hands on." The Ex-Unit 17 commander could only shrug as he said "Most of them are still alive. Besides, I didn't have any reason to question him in the first place."

It was Alia's turn to be at a loss for words as she tried to get another angle as X seems to have all kinds of unknown functions hidden away within his body despite her getting intimate on numerous occasions whenever she got the chance before closing her eyes. X knew from the creeping smile was her way of reliving memories and took the time to gently brush the protective foliage to allow a sliver of sunlight through, just enough to see a stocky reploid in brown and black armour with a large gunmetal grey discus with a dull red rim taking up the entirety of the left lower arm; the back of the head is a nest of spines and wires hanging over the shoulders like dreadlocks and serrated hacksaw teeth all too visible between squat amber- yellow titanium coated jaws. The mismatched tones and the mammalian stature held hints of a post-production alteration process. The reploid then took a small cube from a pouch as a human couple who look so child-like in the distance in their blue demin shorts and plain white shirts came into sight from the left – X couldn't see either the images on the cube or the faces of the humans and whatever he had heard might as well be gentle murmurs in the negligible wind as he witnessed the shaking of heads, tentative handshakes and the parting of ways. He turned his gaze inward to see Alia's hand on his shoulder and her eyes were looking straight through him. "What is it? Do you think someone had found us?" she whispered.

"I just saw a reptilian based reploid who look like he's undergoing Humanisation, armed with what looks like a thermal buzzsaw and carrying a cube. And no, I don't think so; otherwise he would've stayed in the park and called for backup." X replied as he caressed her face before holding her close and memories of panic and flight come crashing through their memories; of dead metal regenerating and black killing mist choking their surroundings amidst the dying screams of those caught in the crossfire. The Sun slowly filtering its rays through the foliage as they continue embracing one another until they began to see the change in hue. Alia whispered in his ear and X understood as they released each other and brushed the leaves aside together, scanning the forest as the weakening lances of light pierce the trees as they replaced the displaced leaves when they found no trace of the reploid or the couple but also find no relief in their absence.

"I'm beginning to doubt the amnesty will continue after tonight, I don't think it's worth getting connected onto the electrosphere. It's too risky as some navigators were selected to monitor traffic after restrictions were lifted." Alia confessed as she crept out the foliage and X knew it was time to move and joined her in the sun pierced shade in their benighted state and said to her "I guess we better get home." and took out a set of brass keys from a hip compartment before she could talk. "Hang on, how did you get those?" Alia asked.

"I managed to convince a guy to let us move in a single bedroom apartment, had enough money to pay for the deposit and agreed to some other arrangements, namely a small job for the pair of us in his workshop to cover the bills and to have some money to ourselves." X confirmed, his jade green eyes shining with the promise of better days. "I know you have a lot of questions but I assure you he's legit."

"What makes you so sure?" Alia asked.

"I took the time to look into his background without going on the electrosphere and found out that he's a reploid rights activist."

X registered the fear in Alia's eyes but she understood the opportunity being presented and together they took their leave with the Sun casting towering shadows in between bands of yellow, red and purple through and out of the forest and into the sprawling metropolis they can finally call home, and made their merry way.


End file.
